Virus attachments

[WKK Gimbal 0]

Whenever I see an email in my inbox from someone I don't know, I delete it right away without reading. But I've been wondering what the activation stage for the most advanced email viri is.

Are there any attachment viri that can launch, spread or place themselves in a directory, just if you look in the *body text* of the email but don't save or launch the attached file?

I'm not sure about this part, so therefore I always delete without even reading - but maybe that's overreacting?

[LauryThorn 0]

What program do you use for reading your mails?

Most viruses that spread via e-mail are in attachments:

Word documents, Word anything...

Some viruses activate when reading the body-text,

if your e-mail program supports html mails and so on..

[theavonlady 2]

Please point out a single virus that is activated by just opening the post and reading the text with doing any function against the attachment.

[theavonlady 2]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (theavonlady @ May 23 2002,15:28)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Please point out a single virus that is activated by just opening the post and reading the text with doing any function against the attachment.<span id='postcolor'>

Ooops. Never mind. Didn't see the HTML remark.

[LauryThorn 0]

Maybe you should do a Google search for

better, more reliable and more accurate information.

EDIT:

This comment was pointed at WKK Gimbal, not at our dear Avon!

[Gorgi Knootewoot 0]

I always read any mail i get. I open everything, and click on anything.

But i never do it on my own computer. I only read mail here at work. I don't give a damn if they are getting infected. They screw me with their stupid policy, i screw them. F*ck Fort Dodge. They should make a vaccine for those viruses then. Oh boy, do i HATE it here. One more month and i am free. Stupid bastards. They won't let me write my report here, so i have to do it in my spare time. The fools. I don't have enough spare time for that. I have to work all day, and in the evening i have to do sport, and then i must sleep. And in the weekend i must do nice things. Godd*mn bastards. Well, i go drink some f*cking coffee now.  

Edit:

[FallenPaladin 0]

It`s the same in my office here, too

But in 1 month I`m free, too

[theavonlady 2]

HTML virus example. Don't worry. It's safe to click on the link. Also note that the solution is generally to keep Windows updated.

Gorgi, your system is obviously infected with the Peter Pan virus.

[LordZach 0]

i've been getting those for months, some were coming from this kid on a MOHAA board who's ISP i contacted the others appear to be random, i use yahoo for mail and it automatically scans and deletes viruses with norton before it delivers it so all i get is a nice 130k blank email with full headers

but yes with html active it could embed itself

[Antichrist 0]

Sometimes I get e-mails from people I know, but they are the e-mails with games and stuff, and I know that those people never sent me those!! So I just delete them all!

[WKK Gimbal 0]

It's become worse after I joined the OFP community - I think they're forwarded from my clan mail address. I get atleast one each day. Today I got one from "Postmaster" and the title was "Undelivered mail: I miss hearing from you" or some crap like that I can't believe they expect people to fall for it... and besides I never write such cheesy topic lines for my mails

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

I dont use home-emailing anymore. I always got stupid viruses and too much junkmail with Outlook. Now I use Yahoo, and I got no problem with it. And of course I pop-mail connected it to my home account (which I fully delete regularily).

[theavonlady 2]

In the office, we use updated versions of McAfee and all Windows security updates in place. With everyone using Outlook 2000, we've never been virus infected and, yes, we've received plenty.

[WKK Gimbal 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (theavonlady @ May 23 2002,17:08)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Windows security<span id='postcolor'>

Now that is a paradox

[Guest]

FOOT-AND-MOUTH BELIEVED TO BE FIRST VIRUS

UNABLE TO SPREAD THROUGH MICROSOFT OUTLOOK

Researchers Shocked to Finally Find Virus That Email App Doesn't Like

Atlanta, Ga. (SatireWire.com) — Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Symantec's AntiVirus Research Center today confirmed that foot-and-mouth disease cannot be spread by Microsoft's Outlook email application, believed to be the first time the program has ever failed to propagate a major virus.

"Frankly, we've never heard of a virus that couldn't spread through Microsoft Outlook, so our findings were, to say the least, unexpected," said Clive Sarnow, director of the CDC's infectious disease unit.

The study was immediately hailed by British officials, who said it will save millions of pounds and thousands of man hours. "Up until now we have, quite naturally, assumed that both foot-and-mouth and mad cow were spread by Microsoft Outlook," said Nick Brown, Britain's Agriculture Minister. "By eliminating it, we can focus our resources elsewhere."

However, researchers in the Netherlands, where foot-and-mouth has recently appeared, said they are not yet prepared to disqualify Outlook, which has been the progenitor of viruses such as "I Love You," "Bubbleboy," "Anna Kournikova," and "Naked Wife," to name but a few.

Said Nils Overmars, director of the Molecular Virology Lab at Leiden University: "It's not that we don't trust the research, it's just that as scientists, we are trained to be skeptical of any finding that flies in the face of established truth. And this one flies in the face like a blind drunk sparrow."

Executives at Microsoft, meanwhile, were equally skeptical, insisting that Outlook's patented Virus Transfer Protocol (VTP) has proven virtually pervious to any virus. The company, however, will issue a free VTP patch if it turns out the application is not vulnerable to foot-and-mouth.

Such an admission would be embarrassing for the software giant, but Symantec virologist Ariel Kologne insisted that no one is more humiliated by the study than she is. "Only last week, I had a reporter ask if the foot-and-mouth virus spreads through Microsoft Outlook, and I told him, 'Doesn't everything?'" she recalled. "Who would've thought?"

[Satchel 0]

Over the last couple of weeks i found the W32.Klez.gen@mm i-net worm Virus in attachments forwarded to my e-mail address. The problem with this virus is that it is self sending, on an infected machine it will randomly send itself to contacts stored in the e-mail addressbook, so there must not necessary be some hacker behind it, trying to cause harm specifically to you.

In fact most people don´t even know that they are sending viruses unintentionally everytime they go online, and wonder themselves why they get a writing from their ISP to stop the "illegal" activities they are doing.

You are especially prone to receiving viruses, if many people have stored you in their contact lists.

I can only urge everyone to use Antivirus software with e-mail protection and current virus definitions, then you are usually on the secure side. If you are getting sick of finding viruses from the same address on a regular basis in your mails, return the mail to the sender with a hint that his machine is infected with a virus. If no response is received and he´s continuing to send viruses, block his e-mail address and inform his SP.